Chapter 5 - A New Beginning at the Estate
Three weeks later, the Hart estate was quiet. The legal storm had passed, Richard Cole and his co-conspirators were behind bars, and Hartwell Data Systems was finally free of the dark cloud that had hung over its birth.
In the grand kitchen, the sunlight poured through the tall windows.
Sophie sat at the island, coloring with a box of new crayons. Near her, wearing a clean shirt and jeans, stood Mason.
Evelyn walked into the kitchen, holding a steaming mug of coffee. She stopped a few feet away, watching the two of them in comfortable silence. The tension that had defined her household for years was completely gone.
“You know,” Evelyn said, leaning against the counter, “technically, you’re still my head janitor. I never officially accepted your resignation.”
Mason looked up, a slow, easy smile spreading across his face. “I don't mind. The pay is terrible, but the company in the kitchen is hard to beat.”
Sophie looked up from her drawing, her eyes bright and free of shadows. She held up a piece of purple construction paper.
“Look,” she said, sliding it across the marble toward Evelyn and Mason.
It was a drawing of a house with a very large chimney, a smiling dog, and three stick figures standing on the front lawn. Below it, in neat, careful second-grade handwriting, it said:
“The Moretti-Hart Family. Nobody is leaving.”
May you like
Evelyn felt a hot tear slip down her cheek, but she was smiling too hard to care. She looked at Mason, whose shoulders had finally stopped carrying the invisible weight of the past.
“Nobody is leaving,” Evelyn repeated softly, placing her hand over his.
